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Cockermouth Mountain Rescue team leader Mike Park said it will be an honour to carry the Olympic torch through the town he calls home.

HONOURED: Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team leader Mike Park

Mike, of Pardshaw, said: “It is extremely important that I am running through Cockermouth because I was brought up in Camerton and have lived around Cockermouth for 28 years. I see it as my home town.

“I am really looking forward to it and am chuffed that somebody was nominated to represent the team for what they have done.

“It is a once in a lifetime experience which is what we seem to get a lot of in this town.”

The 47-year-old followed a his father’s footsteps when he joined the mountain rescue team as his dad Jack was a member for 15 years.

Mike was at the heart of the rescue operation during the 2009 floods and the shootings in June 2010.

He said: “The floods were an experience that I hope we are not going to get again and it was so good the team could put something back into the town that has done so much for us.

Mike, who is married to Tracy and has two children Bramble and Millie, was nominated by team chairman Steve Brailey so he could represent the work the team had done in the local community.

The land surveyor, who works at Sellafield, said details about what he will do on the day were still quite sparse.

He added: “I know which day I am running on, that I am doing it in Cockermouth and have been on the website to look at the route.

“If they follow the order the names are on the website I will probably be running with the torch somewhere on the Main Street.

“I am not too happy about the uniform we have to wear and I would rather my family and friends wouldn’t see it but I have made a fool of myself at carnivals in the past so I do not think it will matter.”